Kolkata Knight Riders will lock horns against Royal Challengers Bangalore at Sharjah. Kolkata Knight Riders will come into this match with two consecutive narrow wins over Chennai Super Kings and Kings XI Punjab. They will be looking forward to maintain the winning momentum in this match against Royal Challengers Bangalore on Monday.
On the other hand, Royal Challengers Bangalore will be coming into this match after a victory against Chennai Super Kings. Royal Challengers Bangalore are trying to find out the right balance in the starting lineup and the team management will be eyeing to back the players for next few matches.
Pitch Report:
The match will be played in Sharjah, which will be a factor too. The toss winning captain will surely choose to chase because of the short boundaries of Sharjah. The teams will be confident to chase down any total in this ground.
Head To Head Record:
Total Matches Played: 24
Kolkata Knight Riders Won: 14
Royal Challengers Bangalore Won: 10
Predicted Starting XI:
Kolkata Knight Riders:
Sunil Narine, Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Dinesh Karthik, Eoin Morgan, Andre Russell, Pat Cummins, Rahul Tripathi, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Shivam Mavi, Varun Chakravarthy.
Royal Challengers Bangalore:
Virat Kohli (C), Devdutt Padikkal, Aaron Finch, AB De Villiers, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Chris Morris, Yuzi Chahal, Navdeep Saini, Umesh Yadav, Isuru Udana.
Key Players:
Kolkata Knight Riders:
Shubhman Gill
Sunil Narine
Royal Challengers Bangalore:
Virat Kohli
Chris Morris
Captain And Vice-Captain Selection:
Captain Choices: Shubhman Gill, Virat Kohli
Vice-Captain Choices: Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Chris Morris, AB de Villiers
Probable Winner: Kolkata Knight Riders
The camp of Kolkata Knight Riders will be very much confident after winning two close matches. In those two matches, they have not been at their best for most of the time in the match. However, they have been able to be at the winning side after the end of the match. The team management has been trying to do different things in every match. Some of the strategies are working and the others are not going as planned.
However, they will be happy to see their captain Dinesh Karthik getting back into runs. His innings of 58 runs in 29 balls have been immensely important for his side’s win. The star bowler of KKR, Sunil Narine’s action has been reported for his action in the previous match. He will not be allowed to ball again in the tournament if his action gets reported for the second time in this season. Andre Russell has picked up an injury in the previous match against Kings XI Punjab. So, he is doubtful to start in the next match against Royal Challengers Bangalore. However, the management of Kolkata Knight Riders will try their best to field him in this match.
On the other hand, Royal Challengers Bangalore might field an unchanged XI in this match. The only concern for them might be the form of Aaron Finch. However, they will be backing him to get back to his touch as soon as possible.
